Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Time to replace Japanese paper "washi"

Just a few days ago I was wondering all day that day whether or not I should have replaced the washi paper on our front doors.

The front doors are sliding doors of lattice frames applied with Japanese paper. I like a type of our traditional house but as the front doors, how I wished if they would have not been too classic. I make it a rule to replace paper every year since white color looks quite faded out by the end of the year. Or it simply gets damaged or gets holes by then.

The weather really counts for this annual chore because I have to take off the front
doors and to apply washi papers in an open
air. I don't want to do it on a chilly day.

You might wonder why I do this at this time of the season in cold weather. It's because we celebrate the arrival of the new year in a clean house, clean rooms and clean kitchen. We also change old items into new ones, such as some underwear, towels, family chopsticks and even toothbrushes. We are busy finishing all these in time for the new year.

Applying new paper is not an exception. I wait to replace paper on our front doors until it gets close enough to the last day of the year.

Yesterday it was not so windy and not that cold. I should not have waited for another chance.
So I got started just as some images below.

And finally I completed it. So happy and contented with the result.

One of the things I like about Japanese paper "washi" on siding doors is
that it gives the warm and soft sunlight filtered through paper. The charm of sliding doors applied with Japanese paper is outstanding when we sit and see the light coming across the screens indoors rather than outdoors.